I, Ranger
by The Metal Mulisha
Summary: While getting ready to leave a hospital parking lot, a young woman is accidently shot only to wake and find herself in the city of Reefside where a destiny awaits her like no other.
1. Prologue

Prologue

It had been just a rough night all around for one Sara Anderson as she had just finished working graveyard at the community hospital gift shop for the third night in a row. The last two shifts weren't even her own as she had been called in by a other volunteers to take over for them because they couldn't make it in. Reluctantly she agreed to take over for them and now she was completely beat and tired through and through from just being on her feet all night. Sara worked the graveyard shift of course, which went from 5:00pm to 8:00pm. However, she closed the gift shop at about ten to eight so there weren't people in the gift shop at eight when she wanted to count out the next shift's fund, close up, count up her makings for the shift, post, and then shut up and leave. Somewhere in counting the fund and ringing out, she found some mistakes and had to go back over everything and count through the money again. After ten minutes, Sara finally had found the mistake and was able to ring out all the way and post her makings for the shift.

After closing the gift shop entirely, Sara was finally able to leave. After leaving the hospital out the back near the ER, Sara headed out to the parking lot where her car was located. It was dark out and the street lights overhead provided some comfort in the fact that of anything happened, it could at least be spotted. Sara shivered as it was rather cold out considering the fact that it was the middle of January. Her steps were quick and direct as she marched herself straight for the grey Dodge Neon parked under one of the street lamps. _Finally. _She sighed in relief while pulling the car keys out of the left pocket of her salmon colored smock she had to wear as a part of the volunteer uniform she had been issued. Picking out her car key in particular, Sara stopped at the driver side door. As was her routine every night she worked, she unlocked the door, pulled her wallet and cell phone out of the uniform pockets and tossed them onto the passenger seat, yanked off the ID badge, unbuttoned her smock and took it off, as she went to hang the tragedy to fashion up in the back of her seat Sara's ears perked up as she heard loud voices coming from the Emergency Walk-In entrance.

"Weird." She muttered quietly to herself while looking over towards the area in which the voices originated, all the while as she pulled on her favorite sweatshirt she had worn to the hospital for warmth. It was hunter green with grey, white, and black DC Shoes logo and emblems monogrammed across the front chest, the back shoulders, and down the backside of the right arm. A security guard had told her one night when she was in training about how later in the graveyard shift that the ER experienced at times a flux of walk-ins, mainly gang related injuries. "Maybe this was what he was talking about." Sara mused while running a hand through her short auburn hair.

As she was just getting ready to step into her car and drive off, her body went tense as she heard what sounded like gunshots. At least, that' what she figured them to be since she had never really heard gun fire in all her life. Her head whipped back over to the ER as she felt something painful shoot through her body, starting at her left shoulder and spreading through her like a fire. Her vision started to become blurry as her knees started to shake and buckle under her own weight. Somehow the thought that she had been shot and was going to die repeated itself a million times over in her mind as her stability gave out and her lean frame started to fall downwards with aid of good all gravity. Everything rushed passed her as it all went dark and her body struck hard pavement in one motion that would have been described as flawless.


	2. Gone With The Sin

Chapter One

Gone With the Sin

A nasty throbbing at the back of her head is what first awoke Sara Anderson as she groaned while slowly opening her brown eyes to blink lazily and fight at the light that was seemingly glaring at her. Exhaling heavily, Sara moved to lift her head up to see where she was and what happened. As she did so, the pain become less dull and more intense as she moved herself so that her hands were pressed palms down and taking most of her weight as she pushed herself up into a sitting position on her knees. Sara sucked in a sharp breath as she sat back on her knees and placed both hand behind her head, pressing them to the spot where the pain was the most intense. Shutting her eyes as her body started to slowly block out the pain and regain some of her stability. This took a few minutes for the pain to finally pass on and subside to a dull throb that had moved from the back of her head to the center of her forehead. Both hands moved to the new spot of pain and massaged the area as she continued on with her fight against it.

Giving a small grunt, Sara opened her eyes and squinted as they were berated with rays of sunlight. Raising a hand up to shield her eyes something struck her that she hadn't realized until just now. Blinking once more, Sara looked around from where she sat on her knees still. Oh yeah, something was definitely wrong with where she was at. There wasn't any hospital, cars, parking lot, or street lights. No, there was only dirt and dead leaves under her, trees surrounding every direction about her, and the sounds of critters chattering away all around. "What in the hell is going on!" Sara whispered to herself while staggering to her feet and swayed slightly until she regained her balance.

Her brown eyes had taken on the famous 'Deer-caught-in-the-headlights' look from I Love Lucy as she whipped about on her feet trying to understand and make reason as to why she was located now in what seemed to be the middle of a forest and not the hospital parking lot she had been in not but…how long had it been since she blacked out? The reality of this fact struck her and caused the brunette to start searching frantically around the area of her left shoulder. _I did get shot, didn't I? Or at least that's what I thought had happened. _Her fingers found no trace of a hole in the fabric of her sweatshirt, but there was a rather tender spot she found while pressing on her shoulder. Wincing from the effect the applied pressure she had placed, Sara just groaned while dropping her hands back down to her sides. A panic started to set in on her as she started to search the pouch pocket of her sweatshirt and the pockets of her white scrub pants.

"No! No, no, no, no, no, no!" she repeated in a desperate tone of voice as she searched over and over again and even around the area she had had found her self. "Oh please god, no." Her voice became even more distressed than before. What she had been searching for was the simple accessory known as the cell phone. With a cruel bitch slap from reality, Sara's memory was jogged back to when she had bed been getting ready to leave the hospital parking lot. She had thrown her cell phone into the passenger seat of her car. Smacking herself in the forehead, Sara groaned loudly at her own foolish mistake. _Seriously, how stupid can I be?_ Sara thought angrily to herself while stomping her foot once on the ground as she started to look about herself.

"Well, now what?" she asked loudly to no one in particular aside from her own self. "Now what was that dumb saying again?" she mused while stepping over to the nearest tree and stared at it while rubbing her chin. "Moss always grows on the side of the tree facing north?" Sara started to pace around the tree and near automatically found a patch of green colored fuzz growing off the bark. "Well, there ya go." She stated to herself while gesturing to the fungus that was now providing her with direction. "Okay, so north is…" she paused while turning on her heel to face the direction that had been behind her. "...is that a way."

Now set with her sense of direction and hope of finding someone to help her, Sara started to walk through the forest heading in the direction of north. _Okay, so eventually I'm gonna come out of this place and hopefully find a road. I'm just hoping that when I do find a road that there will at least be someone driving by I can flag down. _At this point Sara jumped over a fallen log and then continued on with her walk still rambling off various things within her mind to herself to keep some sort of sanity to this difficult situation she had come to find herself in. However, as she walked on that odd creepy feeling of being watched came over her. It started with just that little paranoid feeling one gets when being out somewhere alone and this caused her to look about herself while still walking towards her intended destination. Seeing nothing at first she just shrugged it off and tried not to think about it seemed to be persisting even now.

The next feeling of being watched came over her as a small chill running up her spine that caused her to shiver involuntarily. This time stopping in her tracks Sara turned a full 360 and tried to see if she was in fact being watched. When nothing fell into her line of sight, this had her feeling overly paranoid now as she started walking again in an even faster pace than before to leave the forest behind. As the paranoia was continuing to grow Sara's pace was quickening and soon had her going at an all out run dodging various forest litter as she went. _I have no idea what the hell is watching me or if there is something even there! But I am not gonna wait around to find out what it is! _For almost an hour Sara continued to run, slowing her pace here and there only to pick it right back up again. _Oh what the hell! When is this place going to end! _

Before she even realized it, Sara had broken passed the forest line and was now coming to a slow halt as she now realized there were no longer any trees around her but a small grassy field. Coming to a complete stop, Sara looked back behind herself at the forest and then glared at it in a mocking tease before looking around to see if in fact there was a road nearby. And as luck would have it, there was. Not even ten feet from where she was the field ended and a black asphalt road butted up against it with a dirt shoulder. "Oh thank god." Sara exhaled dramatically while jogging over to the road and stopped on the shoulder to catch her breath some more. Bent over with her hands on her knees Sara took in a few deep breathes and then stood back up to her full height. "Okay, now should I just wait to see if someone comes by or should I start walking north again following the road?"

It seemed the best idea to continue on north rather than turn around and head south from the amount of area she had already covered from walking and then running through the forest. Then again, who's to say that she had been coming from the south in the first place before knowing her direction? Whatever the case it seemed more reasonable to go ahead and continue on in the same direction as she had been walking. Settled on that, Sara started down the road headed north walking along the soft shoulder. _Boy, wouldn't that just be ironic if the first person that comes by and I flag down turns out to be some psychopath? Ah man, come on! I just left that forest so why does it feel like I'm still being watched? _Ignoring the creepy feeling the best she could and making due with that fact that there was a very slim chance someone would come by as it now occurred to her that a road like this might be one of the less traveled ones, Sara just put her best foot forward and shoved on.

From what she could estimate, Sara had come maybe a mile before a green metal road sign finally appeared listing approaching cities and how many more miles until she reached them. A sense of renewed hope and vigor came upon her as she neared the sign and read it while she walked towards it. The sign held three cities listed – Reefside 10, Turtle Beach 15, Blue Bay Harbor 50. Sara stopped before the sign and just stared at it. Not one of these names sounded familiar to her at all. They weren't ones she recognized as Californian cities or towns and she lived in California for the past 18 years. "Okay, what the hell!" she spat aloud to herself while throwing her hands up in the air. "Where am I?" And with that kicked the sign post nearest to her, scuffing her white VANS with some of the brown wood residue. Seeing as there really wasn't any other choice open to her and that she at least knew there was a city just ten miles ahead of her now, Sara started walking again.

_What else can go wrong today? I mean first I'm shot, then I wake up in the middle of a forest that isn't anywhere near the hospital, I don't have my cell phone on me, and now I find out that there isn't one town name I recognize as being in California. I mean seriously, what else is there to punish me with? _While fuming over the apparent bad fortune she was facing Sara had been staring mostly at the road ahead of her, but something was now drawing her attention. To her ears and mind it almost sounded as though someone were calling her name. Raising an eyebrow at this and looking off to her right as it seemed that her name was being called from that direction, she still continued to walk. There was only another piece of forest and a small field leading to it alongside the road on her right and this creped her out. Hearing her name again, it sounded like it was being carried on a wind that wasn't there or she was just hearing it her mind.

Again her name was called for a third time and it finally had her stopping…again. Staring at the forest from where she stood and feeling utterly confused, Sara heard it one last time before making up her mind to try and find out where her name was being called from, and it seemed like it was coming from the forest that she had just left. However, the curious side of the teenager got the better of her added along with a strange sense of being pulled along. Entering this new section of forest Sara shook her head at her own stupidity. "You know how dumb this is? It has kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder written all over it in big bold letters. But do I follow smart thinking and stick to the road while ignoring the voice? Hell no, I'm the total idiot I'm always yelling at in movies and TV shows who traverses into the creepy woods……alone." She spoke to herself while coming to a stop about fifteen feet in over the border and looking around.

Her name was called again and took her off a bit to the left and drew towards an odd looking tree. At the center of the tree trunk at about shoulder height, Sara stared at a hole that looked like it was in the shape of a razor-toothed mouth. Something pulled at her being and suggested that she look inside as it spoke in the deepest part of her mind and forced its will upon her unconsciously. Following the new instinct that had developed Sara stuck her hand inside the hole without a second thought and started rummaging through the dead leaf litter inside. Her fingers skimmed across something hard and smooth while digging through the foliage. Clasping her hand about it Sara pulled out of the tree trunk and opened her hand to see what it was that she had found. Flicking aside the dead leaves that she had also picked up her brown eyes came to rest upon a green stone sitting at the center of her palm. "Cool, kryptonite. Super Man watch out." She joked while fingering the stone in a studying manner.

It was small, about the size of a rock found at the bottom of a river, but it wasn't as round and smooth like that. No it was more oval shaped and held what could only be described and smooth cut edges. Sort of like those scribing crystals on a chain that psychics use but larger and without the chain. After looking over for a moment Sara just shrugged and pocketed the stone for some unknown reason other than it looked cool. With her curiosity satisfied, Sara headed back out of the forest and returned to walking the road once more. _Well, at least it's the mid afternoon and I don't have to worry about walking in the night._ Sara thought to herself in an attempt to keep herself in a lighter mood as about an hour and a half passed by without a single car passing. With no signs of help coming or even the slightest hint that she was nearing this place called Reefside Sara was starting to wonder if in fact there was a city coming up at all.

Some twenty minutes later Sara found herself singing a rather annoying song to herself as she tried to keep occupied during this walk of hers. Even if it was annoying it had a catchy little tune to it.

"I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves,

Everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves!

I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves,

And this is how it goes!

I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves,

Everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves!

I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves,

And this is how it goes!"

This continued on for about another half hour until she had annoyed herself and switched over to singing Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams a few times over. About half way through the second time a car finally appeared on the road coming up from behind the teenager. Hearing the approach, Sara turned around and got ready to flag them down only to have the car speed by without even slowing down to see if she was alright. Completely pissed off now, Sara watched the car disappear and then growled under her breath. "You could've at least acknowledged me with a puddle spray!" she yelled angrily while stomping on towards her destination that seemed rather impossible in reaching now. Another hour and a half passed with no other cars coming by and now had Sara completely and utterly aggravated to the point that if someone did stop to help her she'd more than likely bite their head off after spitting acid at them. That was, until she saw a blue colored road sign coming up on the same side of the road as her reading – **WELCOME TO REEFSIDE**.

"FINALLY!"


	3. Captured By Fate

Chapter Two

Captured By Fate

Relieved that she had finally made it to this place called Reefside, Sara a bit more at ease as this meant she would be able to get to a payphone and make a phone call home for help. With a little more energy in her step Sara walked somewhere around another mile before she happened upon a gas station. It was one of those small gas stations that you saw before leaving on trip that offered one last chance for a pit stop until the next city or town. It had a sign on the roadside with faded red letters that stood attached to a fifteen foot pole with chipping white paint. The name of the gas station was – Quick n' Save. No matter how corny the name sounded or how unkempt the place looked, once Sara spotted the payphone outside the front door of the small mini mart it looked grander than any other gas station out there. Having to jog across the road to reach this place Sara made a beeline straight for the payphone and didn't even notice how quiet and empty everything was around her.

_Oh thank you God! I couldn't ask for more right now. _Picking up the phone Sara put it to her hear and automatically heard the dial tone. Whispering another 'thank you' she quickly dialed a collect call to her home number and waited as it rang. "Come on, pick up, pick up, pick up." She muttered under her breath as it rang for a third time and then what voice greeted her hearing caused the bottom of her stomach to fall.

"We're sorry but the number that you have dialed does not exist. Please hang up and try again." The automated voice stated in its emotionless monotone recording.

Pressing the receiver pad down to hang up, Sara waited for the dial tone again and this time made a collect call to her mom's cell phone. _Oh please let her pick up. _"We're sorry but the number you have dialed does not –" Sara hung up and dialed again for her dad's cell. "We're sorry but the number you have dialed – " Again she hung up and tried one last number belonging to her younger sister's cell phone. "We're sorry but the number you have dialed does not exist. Please hang up and try again."

Slamming the phone down on the receiver with possibly enough force to have broken it, Sara collapsed again the payphone stall and stared down at the one thing that could have brought her home and yet was denying her access to her family. Forming tears started to sting her eyes as she started to force down the pent up emotion that wanted to be let out. "Why?" was all she muttered under her breath through clenched teeth while pushing herself off the payphone. "Why is this happening?" she seethed while swiping the back of her hand across her eyes to brush away a few stray tears that had managed to get free. Composing herself to seem stable for the most part, Sara breathed deep before heading into the mini mart where in upon her arrival the attendant looked up from his place behind the counter.

"Hello." He greeted. There wasn't any foreign accent as he was of course Caucasian, which was kind of odd for a gas station attendant to say the least.

"Hi." Sara greeted back while coming up to the counter. "Um, can you tell me how far it is to the city limits of Reefside?" she asked, stopping at the counter.

The attendant nodded his head in reply to this. "Yeah, it's about another mile from here." He answered with a friendly smile.

Sara forced a smile back. "Thanks." She said before heading back out the door to resume her walk. However, just at the door she hesitated and looked back at the attendant who was watching her leave. "Uh, what's the date today?" she asked, curious to find out how long she had been out for before finding herself in that forest some ten miles back.

"The twenty-seventh." He answered while checking his calendar real quick to make sure. "Yeah, January twenty-seventh." He confirmed.

"Okay, thanks." Sara waved as she left the mini mart and crossed over the small gravely pit row lined with only three gas tanks. _It's still the twenty-seventh? But I worked the twenty-seventh and I was leaving the hospital at nearly five to ten! How the hell is it still the twenty-seventh! What's going on! Wait! Maybe I've finally cracked from all the stress that was going on this week. Yeah, that's it. I've gone insane, stark raving mad. God, I need to find like a police station so I can get some sort of help._ Her mind continued to clamor on as she walked towards the city limits of Reefside.

It took a little around twenty minutes before Sara found herself passing a sign that stated – Reefside City Limits Population 444,776. Actually this whole walking an entire elven miles had been a piece of cake for her. After all she was used to having a great deal of energy demanded of her as she had played on school soccer teams for the girl since fifth grade all the way through her senior year in high school. After graduating she had been sought out by three different collage teams to come play for them on a scholarship and had been deciding between Notre Dame, UCLA, and USC while continuing work as a volunteer at the community hospital. But it just wasn't soccer, she also rode motocross with her next door neighbors at the local Supercross track at the fairgrounds. And she was pretty good at it too, although it was more of a hobby than anything else.

_Jesus, I would have really liked playing for USC since they were the only ones offering a full scholarship. _Sara sighed heavily to herself as defeat seemed to have cruelly bitch smacked her across the face at this point. After shaking her personal despair of loosing a collage scholarship to the side and looking up from watching the ground disappear under her feet, Sara found herself now entering the city of Reefside itself. Somehow this brought about a sense of hope that had Sara now jogging towards human contact rather than walking. Once now on the streets of the city itself Sara could feel herself relax and loose the hopeless sense of loss and defeat that she had before when contact couldn't be made to any of her family. Having other people around, even if they were strangers, had an effect on anyone who felt alone and Sara was one of those types of people receiving that effect.

To the people she passed by who glanced at her and kept on their way without a second thought, she looked as though she had been out on a run considering the fact that she was wearing what looked like a sweat outfit with the DC Shoes sweatshirt, white pants, and white shoes. Well in a sense she had been running, but not for want of exercise. _Okay, all I have to do is go into the first place I see and ask directions to the police station. _And as she came around the corner and entered what looked like an outdoor shopping center, she did just that. The closest place to her looked to be like some sort of juice bar and restaurant that she didn't bother catching the name too before walking inside. Inside Sara's first assumptions about it were changed for the most part as most of the patrons were either high school students or collage aged. _Psh, local teen hang out. Figures. _

Rolling her eyes at this Sara managed to catch sight of a payphone off to her right. Figuring it wouldn't hurt to give one last try she went over and made another collect call to her home number. After three rings the automated voice telling her that number didn't exist came on and Sara hung up before even the third word could be uttered. _Goddamit! _Growling quietly at the phone Sara turned away and headed over to the bar counter she had seen upon first entering. There was a red haired woman working behind it and she seemed like the most logical person to go to and ask for directions. Coming up with a quick explanation in her mind in case the woman asked any questions, Sara approached the counter and held a small smile on her face. The woman noticed her approaching and looked up from her work on putting together the ingredients to a smoothie of some kind. "Hi, I'll be with you in just a moment." The redhead stated after greeting her rather cheerfully.

"Okay." Sara replied while taking a seat on one of the empty stools spaced out around the counter. She watched as the redhead plopped in a scoop of frozen strawberries into the blender cup and then turned around to face the back counter on which was set the blender base. Locking the cup on and adding the lid, she flipped the switch and in just ten seconds of loud whirring, the smoothie was mixed and then was poured into a large colored glass with a straw.

The redhead looked out to the floor and spotted one of her helping hands. "Trent, I have an order ready." She called out while placing the drink up on the side counter to await pick up. Now unoccupied, the redhead came over to where Sara was sitting and gave her a warm friendly smile. "Now, how can I help you?" she asked in a cheery voice that seemed to sooth out the tension that had formed itself inside the teen she spoke with.

"I was wondering if you could tell me how to get to the police station." Sara answered while her facial expression changed from the small smile she had mustered earlier to a passive look that held an air of hope that her question would be answered.

The redhead nodded to this. "Sure. All you do is go down Broadway and pass two intersection lights and then turn down Elm. On Elm, you're going to want to pass the first light and then there will be a cross street called Esther that you want to turn left on." The redhead paused a moment as she noticed the somewhat confused look on the girls face. She smiled sympathetically as she realized that wasn't familiar with the area without her having to say it. "How about I draw you a map and then explain it to you." She suggested while snatching a paper napkin from a dispenser and pulling a pen out of her pants pocket.

"Yeah, that would help, thanks." Sara grinned sheepishly as the redheaded woman started to draw out the map for her without a second of hesitation. _Wow, either people here are really nice or she's just one in a few. _While waiting for her mini map, Sara found her hand drifting into the pouch pocket of her sweatshirt and fingering the green stone she had found inside that oddly shaped trunk hole. Pulling the stone out entirely, Sara brought her hand back up to rest alongside her left one while fiddling with the stone in some sort of nervous habit.

It hadn't even been that long after Sara had asked for directions when the stool next to her was suddenly occupied. Both Sara and the redheaded woman looked up from what they were doing to see who it was that had seated themselves at the counter. The woman smiled broadly before returning to her map drawing. "Hey Dr. Oliver." She greeted the guy sitting at the counter wearing a pair of slim reading glasses and sporting short spiked black hair.

"Hey Haley." He replied back while glancing over the counter to see what she was doing and then voiced his question. "What are you doing?" he asked while raising a brow at her napkin drawing.

The redhead addressed as Haley, paused a moment to point her pen at Sara with a smile. "I'm drawing out a map for this young lady here. She needed directions to the police station, and isn't too familiar with the area." She replied while returning to the near finished mini map.

Looking over at the teen Haley was referring too, Dr. Oliver was met with a brown eyed gaze that seemed rather intense in color and gave her a friendly smile. "Hi." He greeted.

"Hello." Sara replied while she still played with the green stone in her hand unconsciously.

However, her fiddling with the object caught Dr. Oliver's attention and had him glancing down at the contents of her hand. For a moment he was rather speechless as if he was looking on some sort of priceless artifact or other, which in turn had Sara giving him a rather perplexed look as she looked from his facial expression to the stone in her hand and back down again before returning it to the guy sitting beside her. "Where did you get that?" he asked as his attention seemed to be half on her and half on the stone she had in hand.

"I found it out in a forest. Well actually, in a tree trunk." She replied while placing the green stone down on the counter top. "Why?" she now asked as it appeared this piece of rock had not just caught this guy's attention but also the redhead's as well.

"Oh, well…" he brought his attention fully on to the teen sitting next to him. "I'm a paleontologist. The name's Dr. Oliver." He introduced himself while extending his right hand over to her.

For a moment Sara hesitated to take his hand and shake it as it seemed rather odd to randomly meet a doctor of paleontology in a juice bar nonetheless. However she quickly banished her sudden arousal of curiosity and shook hands with the doctor. "It's nice to meet you Dr. Oliver." She smiled at him as they ended their handshake and glanced down at the green stone sitting on the counter. "So, if this some sort of rare rock from the dinosaur age or something?" she asked while holding a somewhat amused look on her face.

"It might be. I've just never seen anything like it before here in Reefside before." Dr. Oliver stated while looking at the rather smooth and yet edged stone that held a certain polish to its surface.

Sara watched him for a moment and took note to how absorbed the doctor was with this piece of rock she had found. "Well then, I guess you better take it." She stated while getting up from her seat as Haley placed the finished map in front of her.

Both adults looked at her with stunned faces to how easily she was just handing it over. Dr. Oliver looked from the teen to Haley and then back all in one quick motion. "Are you sure about that?" he asked just to make sure she didn't have second thoughts on this.

"Yeah. I mean if it does turn out be something really old from the prehistoric period, I'd rather that someone like you had it instead of me. I mean I would probably just end up using it as decorative knick knack in my room where it would just collect dust." Sara stated with a reassuring nod of her head. "If it does turn out to be special, at least in your hands it would collect dust in a museum where the public could see it." A small smirk came across her face at the little remark she had made.

Dr. Oliver grinned at her while standing up from his seat as well and extended his hand to her again. "I don't how to thank you." He stated with his grin growing larger from how incredible this was.

Sara placed her hand in his again. "It's not a problem, really. Well, you could mention my name if it turns out this is really something of discovery." She stated in good humor.

"Not a problem." Dr. Oliver replied while taking out a small pocket book and pen from the pocket of the black canvas jacket he was wearing. "If you give me your name I'll be sure to claim you as the discoverer." He stated while flipping to a blank page at the back of his pocket book.

"Oh, yeah, that would help, uh?" Sara laughed while feeling a tad embarrassed as she had forgotten to mention her name in the first place. "It's Sara Anderson."

As he wrote down the name, Dr. Oliver paused a moment. "That's 'Sara' without the h at the end, right?" he asked just to be sure he had gotten the name right. His question was affirmed as Sara nodded to this in reply. "Okay. Well, Sara, again I can't thank you enough. Really." Dr. Oliver stated as he closed his book and placed it back inside his jacket pocket.

Sara smiled at him again. "You're welcome. And, thank you." She stated to Haley while holding up the napkin map she had drawn up for her.

"You're welcome. I wrote down the basic directions to take on the back, so you shouldn't have problem in getting there." Haley explained while indicating to the other side of the paper napkin.

Flipping it over to see what Haley was talking about, Sara nodded as she read over what had been written in neat hand writing. "Okay, thanks." She replied while shortly waving to the two adults in gesture to her leaving.

Haley and Dr. Oliver waved back while saying short 'good-byes' to her as she headed for the door and left the place. Once the auburn haired teen had departed Haley looked over at Dr. Oliver who was now holding the stone in his hand and holding a puzzled expression on his face now as he looked it over. "What?" she asked while furrowing her brow.

"Odd. This had a luster to it that almost seemed to glow in a soft iridescence." He explained while turning it over in his hand a few times and then looked over to the door. "But it's like once she left, it lost it entirely." Dr. Oliver looked over at Haley with a concerned look on his face that showed he was thinking about something in explanation to this that was starting to occur to him.

"You don't think that maybe it's a…" Haley trailed off as she knew he understood as to what she was hinting at with her suggestion.

Dr. Oliver just shook his head as he wasn't sure as to what he was thinking. If he was right in thinking that this was in fact what he thought it was, then that meant they had just let the one person who could answer it for them walk out the door.

* * *

Following Haley's map for about halfway so far, Sara now found herself waiting at the first four-way intersection and waited for the crossing light to signal for her as she stood with a group of four other people. Traffic seemed pretty heavy at this intersection as no doubt people were leaving work or headed to work since it looked to be around early evening now. While she waited for the light to change, Sara studied Haley's map and memorized the next part she needed to know. _One more light and then I turn left on Elm. Got it. _Sara smiled to herself while tucking her mini map into the front pouch of her sweatshirt and just in time to spot the light changing for her to cross. Looking both ways while everyone else started to cross, as she didn't want to be victim to someone's impatience, Sara then followed after the small crowd. Then that's when things started to turn odd on the lost teen. At about midway in the crosswalk it felt as though time was starting to slow down as a tingling sensation started to race up her spine. The cause of this effect had Sara turning her head to the left towards the center of the intersection for some unknown reason. Stopping in her tracks she watched a the air before her started to shimmer and then part like a sheet of water coming down on a jutting piece of rock that cut through its middle.

Almost in a split second after the sensation of slowing time began and the odd occurrence in the air the most ludicrous thing happened before her very eyes. Through that part in the shimmering air stepped out a thing of pure ugly as it stood around seven feet tall and looked to be a cross between a man and a fish. Apparently Sara wasn't seeing things as those standing on other corners and even in the crosswalk with her had stopped and were now screaming and pointing at the monstrosity that was standing the midst of a busy intersection. Sara watched in growing horror as this mutated freak of a thing faced down a car coming towards it at forty-miles an hour and somehow managed to bring both fists down on to the hood of the car as it just reached its position. The sound of flesh and bone driving into steel was disturbing upon the ears. Once hit, the car popped right up so that it was almost standing straight up and down before it flipped over the creature and landed upside down after bouncing off the road once and side scraping another on coming car.

Sara's eyes were glued to the creature that rejoiced in what it had just accomplished by throwing its head back and bellowing as it pumped its arms up and down. Just staring at the thing caused the teen to immediately think of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, only, more realistic and not some cheesy rubber foam one piece suit and mask. You could see the sheen of coated slime that covered its entire body of murky green scales fading into sickly white at the abdomen. The arms it pumped were longer than normal and webbed in between each finger and hooked with a sharp talon-like nail at the end. _What the hell is going on? That thing can't be real! _By now the crosswalk had cleared, people had abandoned their running cars, and fled the sidewalks to seek out cover and hide while screaming the whole time. Sara on the other hand was just rooted to her spot on the street and just stared as her body started to shake with a growing fear. After the creature finished its victory howl it looked about and immediately its large shinny black eyes fell directly on Sara. It blinked twice with its weird lids coming down and flicking up like a crocodile's or lizard's eyes did. The thing cocked its head to this side for a moment; a head that was shaped more like that of a fishes in the front but sweeping back in a long fanned out fin that traveled down its back until it ended at a ground length.

After it seemed to register something within its mind the creature started to advance upon her with a moderate pace as it appeared to either be coming at her with harmful intentions or in a way that suggested otherwise, like it was curious about her. From every direction people yelled and shouted for her to move, to get away. But Sara found that her legs and brain had ceased to further communicate with one another since the whole thing began with a tingling sensation that ran up her spine. The creature had come within ten feet now of the frightened teen and that was as far as it got. Its advancement came to an abrupt end as its chest was hit with a short beam of yellowish light that exploded on impact and had the thing reeling backwards in a stumble. Another few shots followed in the same manner and then from out of nowhere five figures stood before Sara dressed each in one soul color each with their backs turned to her. Their heads were covered in helmets matching their outfits, and for some reason this caused communication to begin once more with her brain and legs to get the hell out of there. Which she did. Turning about she ran down a line of cars that had been left by their owners and came to stop at the third one on her left. There she stopped and ducked down behind it while huddling up against the bumper, knees drawn up to her chest and arms wrapped tightly about them in a hug.

_This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This isn't real. _She repeated over and over in her head again and again as sounds of a fight broke out. The creature's bellowing and grunts were loud defined in between the other noises coming to her ears. _I just want to go home. I just want to see my family again. I don't want to be here! _It was at that moment that one noise rose up all others as it came in a high pitched screaming that sounded like an alarm system going off with one single solitary note repeating in a continuous loop. The sound so horrible that on instinct Sara covered her ears and shut her eyes tight to block out the noise or at least muffle it. _Oh god it hurts! _After what seemed like an eternity of this horrid noise, a silence suddenly took over in an eerie way. Cautiously, Sara opened her eyes and slowly removed her hands from her ears just to make sure the noise wasn't about to start up on her again. Nothing. Not even the sounds of a fight between the mutant creature and the five people who had arrived out of the blue. While Sara brought her hands down all the way she caught something out of the corner of her eye concerning her left wrist. Looking at it she noticed now that something cool was resting against her skin under the cuff of her sleeve.

Pulling the sleeve back quickly her eyes near became the size of saucers as she stared down at an ornate silver bracelet that held an opened lattice design that was about two and a half inches in width. And it seemed to be glowing with an iridescent green light about the entire frame work. The glow started to fade as the sounds of the fight started up again, which caused Sara to come out from behind the car and stand up to see what was going on. She watch in slack jaw wonder as the one dressed in all blue and another in all white attacked the creature from either side with what looked like curved swords. They cut across it from either side causing the creature scream in pain in an unrecognizable sound that soon became gargled as black liquid started to spew forth from the wounds created about its body. Falling to the ground and withering in pain for a moment it then ceased all movement and liquefied into a puddle that then evaporated and disappeared. The five figures came to gather about the area that the creature had fallen upon and seemed to be conversing with one another even though they were wearing full faced helmets with no open spaces at all. It was then that the horrid noise that had drowned everything else out and hurt the ears began again while the bracelet on Sara's wrist started to glow intensely. In quick reaction Sara threw her hands up over her ears and winced at how loud the sound was this time as if it were right there beside her and growing louder.

All five figures were looking in her direction now. Something started to take a hold of her and overwhelm her senses as the noise continued to screech and scream. Whatever that something it was, it was now bringing her into a state haze as her vision started to become blurry and obscured. Her body swayed as it was loosing balance and allowing gravity to take control. Her arms lost the strength to remain up so her hands covered her ears, and they fell to her sides. It didn't matter now because the noise was fading just as she was. Sara felt herself being pulled down and realized this as her knees struck the asphalt of the road hard. There was pain but her body had gone numb to it before it seeped through her. She was going to fall and the five saw this. The one in all red ran forward, breaking from the group and arriving just in time to catch the teen as she fell forward. It would have been a face first plant into the merciless ground of pavement had it not been that person in red catching her in their arms. As she was brought back up so that she was leaning and no longer on her knees, Sara managed to see the helmeted face of the person who saved her from direct second contact with asphalt. Completely helmeted in bright red with only a black visor strip cutting across where the eyes would be and outlined with silver razor pointed teeth, she could have sworn for a moment she was seeing through that and looking into a pair of brown eyes laced with worry. But before she could convince herself that's what she had seen, Sara lost consciousness and blacked out entirely.


	4. Running From One Problem Into A New One

Chapter Three

Running From One Problem Into The Next

"_Welcome to USC Ms. Anderson. Here is your number six jersey."_

_Sara reached out to take the gold and red soccer jersey holding her name and old number on the back. It was all coming true, she was a collage athlete. As her fingers touched the sleek material of the sports uniform they suddenly passed through as it all suddenly disappeared. It was just gone and Sara was left to stand alone on an empty field with a shattered dream and broken heart as her hand began to tremble there in the air it was held aloft in. Allowing her hand to begin its decent towards her side, her bare hand was suddenly caught within another that was gloved in black leather that was almost soft to the touch. Her eyes went from staring down at her caught hand to look at the face of the one who had taken hand in their own. Staring back at her was faceless all black helmet that held what looked like a covering mask that arched over the eye area to give it the shape of slanted and rounded eyes larger than normal as it then swept back on either side in a small ribbed fan extension that ended at the back of the helmet. This part was colored a shade of could only be described as true green. Sara's brown eyes were fixated on this helmeted face that with a hand held her own in what seemed to be reassurance that it wasn't over. That there was still a dream and a hope left somewhere. Sara felt her other hand taken up within the other of this person standing before her and raised so that she could clearly see it. There wrapped around her wrist was that same bracelet. Such a simple piece of jewelry and yet for some reason it seemed to be the cause of her problems. Looking at the helmet face once more she watched with wide eyes as the green part of the helmet started to come alive and pull itself off the black._

_It twisted and shook until it was free enough to take what looked to be the form of a familiar face belonging to a creature of such great myth and legend. As it still pulled from the helmet it opened a mouth formed from the down sweeping ridges that followed out of the fins and then opened it wide as this freely formed creature face came rushing at her. _

In an instant Sara's eyes opened wide and looked as though they suddenly dilated as she inhaled sharply before shooting straight up into a sitting position. Staring off into the space before her, Sara was now taking in deep shaky breathes as she was forcing herself to calm down as her heart was near pounding against her rib cage. Taking one last breath she then exhaled and looked down into her lap while closing her eyes. _It was just a dream. It was all just a dream. _She stated to herself while breathing in deep and looking up to stare at a white colored wall across from her. This was odd and had Sara raising an eyebrow. Weren't her bedroom walls painted a shade of electric blue? With her eyes alone Sara looked from her left to her right. The other walls were white as well and the one on her left held several paintings in brass frames straight across in one even line. With this information now taken in Sara turned her head to the left and then to the right only to be staring out a rather large bay window facing…………_a forest! _Her head snapped down to see that her lower body was covered by bed covering in a blue plaid pattern while she herself was still dressed in her white scrub pants and green DC sweatshirt.

Flipping the covers off quickly and jumping out of the bed she had come to find herself in, Sara touched the carpeted floor and turned about to stare at the bed. That wasn't her bed, even though it was in fact the same size – full. A sense of fear swept over her suddenly as she was starting to realize that she was now somewhere else that she wasn't familiar with. Turning to the large window she went to it and pressed up against the glass and looked around the outside from where she was. Yep, another forest that seemed to be encircling a yard and lining a gravel driveway. _Where the hell am I now! _Backing away from the window Sara placed her left hand to her forehead and as she did, notice something on her wrist under the sleeve of her sweatshirt. Her eyes turned upon that same silver bracelet with a horrified manner as she dropped her hand and yanked the sleeve back all the way. It was still there. That same bracelet of open webbed lattice design was still there clamped about her wrist in a comfortable manner. Looking it over frantically, Sara couldn't find a way to get it off. No clasp, no hooks, no nothing.

Something inside her clicked and she left the bracelet alone to now figure out where she was, how she got there, and how she was going to leave. First off, Sara went to the closed bedroom door and found it unlocked much to her relief. Turning the metal knob slowly and hoping it wasn't one of those loud give away knobs, she closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip until she had turned the knob all the way and heard it softly click. Breathing a sigh of relief as she opened her eyes Sara found that the door opened when you pulled it into the room. The door opened without a sound and Sara pocked her head out of a tiny crack she had made. Well, it was definitely clear that she was up on the second floor as evident from the view out the bay window and now for the fact she was looking down a hall ending with a staircase landing. No one was in the hall and it didn't sound like anyone else was upstairs either from the quiet she was hearing. Down the other end of the hall she saw several other doors which were all closed. Taking this as a sign, Sara opened the door just enough to slip out and the quietly closed it behind herself.

Now in the hall she started to quietly creep towards the staircase. On the landing she peeked down to see if anyone was coming and then looked over the banister. Nothing and not a sound could be heard from downstairs. Whoever had taken her to this place seemed to either be out or possibly asleep. With quiet stealth and quick steps Sara went down the carpeted stairs and found herself on the first floor of what she now understood to be a house. From where she stood it looked as though the front door was about ten feet in front of her on the same wall she stood next to. However the door was in plain sight to what she guessed was an entryway into a living space of sorts. Taking to the wall this entryway was positioned in, Sara kept her back pressed against it and started to slowly creep along until she came to the edge. _God I feel stupid. Using moves from spy movies in a real dangerous situation. Good lord what would my sister say about this?_ Shaking her auburn head, Sara then slowly peeked out to see if there was anyone in the next room. Nothing. _Yes! _Seeing as how she was basically unwatched and free to move about, Sara took this time and stepped quickly to the door and found it to be unlocked.

_Something's finally going right for once! _Opening the door as quietly as she could Sara stepped out onto a wooden porch, closed the door and then ran for the cover of the woods passing by a parked black jeep and old red mustang. The gravel of the driveway crunched under her shoes as she sprinted for the forest and didn't even stop once she got inside it. About a good running distance in Sara finally stopped and hunched over to catch her breath. She had gotten away and made it this far having not been seen. As she stood though with breath caught and wanting to catch her bearings, Sara groaned as she realized she was once more in a forest. "And it's like God lifted up his rain cloud and said, 'I hate you Alfalfa.', or in this case he hates me." Sara grumbled while placing her hands to her hips and started walking in the direction she knew that the gravel driveway followed. Where there was a driveway, there was a road it connected to, and where there was a road there was a way back to that town Reefside and a police station. As Sara walked she found herself rapidly blinking as things went from out of focus at one moment to seeing something that at first glance was far away now in crystal clear sight. Every where she looked this happened. Sara stopped and rubbed her eyes while still blinking. This wasn't right at all. She never had problems with her vision before.

"_I don't get it, how did the stone just disappear?"_

"_I'm not sure, but it might have something to do with that noise we heard."_

"_Yeah, that was painful."_

"_No kidding."_

"_So what do we do now? I mean if that stone is gone and we have no idea where it went to, we're screwed."_

"_We're not screwed. It's just a minor set back."_

Sara started turning around quickly as she was now hearing disembodied voices in her ears. She could hear them talking to each other but she couldn't see them even though it was like they were right there beside her. With this now added to her dysfunctional eye sight, Sara was becoming incredibly frightened as she didn't understand a single thing that was throwing itself upon her. The confusing voices were the last straw and Sara started to run in a random direction as she tried to get away from them. No longer knowing which way it was that she was headed in, she just ran not caring anymore where she was.

**However, back at the house Sara had left behind in her escape from unknown certainty, her absence had finally been noticed a brown haired teen girl had gone up to the room and found no one inside. Racing back down the stairs the teen went into the side living room where in the floor near the wall was a trap door lifted up. A set of stairs led down and she took these two at a time coming to a stop in a basement like structure carved out of a cave of sorts. Inside were sets of mass computers, monitoring systems, screens, and various other things that suggested the fact that this was no ordinary basement. The teen girl came to a stop at the center of this room where four others were located; three of them teenagers like her but male and one adult male. "She's gone." And that was all it took for everyone to race up the steps and out of the house. Outside they split up and started searching for the missing girl they had brought in after she collapsed in the street the other day.**

Still running from voices that were still coming in and out of her hearing like a bad radio connection, Sara soon came to a stop as her foot got caught up in an exposed root system and fell to the leaf littered ground with a heavy thud. Since she took this as a sign to stop and rest a moment before running on forever, Sara turned over on to her back and just stared up into the branches of the trees that surrounded her. "What the hell is happening to me? What did I ever do to deserve this in the first place?" Sara muttered to herself while tears started to form on her lower lid of her eye.

"That's a very good question my dear." A female voiced answered in reply from what seemed to be nowhere at the moment.

Sara took this as a possibility that she was hearing voices again and just decided to answer anyways as for all she knew it was hopeless to fight it anymore. "Oh yeah, so what's the long awaited answer?" she asked sarcastically with a bitter tone of voice. It was then that her line of sight was invaded by a woman's face painted with a heavy eye shadow and lipstick. Her look seemed rather cruel and uncaring.

"Why, it is fate." She smirked smugly while reaching down with a hand holding long black painted nails and grabbed a hold of Sara's collar to yank her up on her feet. Whoever this lady was, she was strong because it just took that one handed yank and Sara was up on her feet instantly and whirled about by the shoulders to look at this woman. "And fate asks that you come see him." She added in with a rather cruel smile gracing her blue lips as her nails dug into the sides of Sara's arms in a bite.

Since having that face just appear Sara's eyes had long since taken on the 'deer-caught-in-the-headlights' look and remained that way only to squintch in reaction to the pain in her arms. Behind the woman appeared what Sara was taking as a man in a full suit of black armor holding flecks and streaks of tarnished teal coloring in certain areas. This one didn't say a word as he came to stand just behind and to the side of the woman and then he asked only one simple question in a rather rough voice that sounded hallow and metallic. "Is this the one then?"

The woman picked up Sara's left wrist as it appeared to her that the teen was froze with fright and not about to bolt if held by one hand alone. Turning her wrist to the left and right to examine the bracelet upon it, she then lost her cruel smile and offered the teen girl a casual smirk while answering the man in black armor. "Yes she is." She stated while dropping Sara's wrist and letting her other arm go only to grab her by the back of her sweatshirt hood.

Without any warning, Sara felt herself pushed forward towards a shimmer in the air and then the forest suddenly disappeared only to be replaced by a metal hall lined along the edge of the floor and ceiling with white lights. The woman was there too with her hand still clamped down on the hood of Sara's sweatshirt along with the man in black armor. Sara didn't even get a moment to take in her new surroundings at all as she was suddenly shoved forward and marched down the hall and directed harshly when she was supposed to turn by the hand of the woman. After another three turns Sara found herself shoved into a large room that reminded Sara of a mad scientist's laboratory. The woman had now released her hold on the hood and stepped around to stand off to Sara's far left and the man in black armor did the same on her right. Looking from one to the other with fright written all over her face, Sara could feel her hands trembling.

"Now, now, my dear child. There is no need to be afraid." A smooth yet raspy voice gently spoke from in front of her. "Please excuse Elsa's manners; she's not used to handling such a cooperative teenager such as yourself." From the shadows of a shelving unit holding various vials and beakers full of strangely colored liquids carefully categorized, stepped a figure that had Sara loosing her breath at the sight of its appearance. Clad in a long black lab coat of that skimmed across the surface of the floor was what she had first though to be a man, until she saw the dinosaur shaped head and three clawed hands coming out the ends of the sleeves. If things had seemed fucked up enough since waking up the first time around after being shot in a hospital parking lot, they had completely to hell now. "You're speechless I see. I expected as much seeing as how I am an upright talking…dinosaur."

Sara nodded at this as she seemed to both agree to what it said and because she just was so scared that she didn't know what to do. The creature laughed shortly as it came towards her at a slowly advancing pace while clasping its claws behind its back. "To answer so many questions forming in that head of yours, let me begin by telling you that I am an evolutionary phenomenon in every aspect of the word." The creature stated as it stopped a few feet from her now and then bowed to her. "I am Mesagog." He introduced himself as he came back up from his bow. "You've already met Elsa." He gestured with a clawed hand towards the woman wearing blue makeup. "And Zeltrax." He motioned now towards the man in black armor. Sara followed his gestures and just stared at each he introduced. "Please, come. Have a seat." The creature stated in a gentle manner while offering her his arm.

Swallowing hard and reaching out a shaky hand, Sara took the offered arm as she didn't want to upset a talking dinosaur that stood taller than her and looked to be bigger than her as well. The dinosaur who called himself Mesagog walked her slowly over to a rolling chair near a desk littered with various things from papers to vials and everything in between. Taking her steps slowly and in a rather shaky manner, Sara managed to reach the chair without falling and sat down with the help of Mesagog. Thanking him with a small nod of her head, Sara offered a very weak smile to the thing that looked upon her with an unnatural smile of razor sharp teeth. "Child, tell me your name so that I will not have to continue on with calling you this." He stated in manner that was oddly passive and very persuasive.

"It's Sara." She answered as the Mesagog stood before her for a moment and nodded at this as he took it in and memorized it. After doing so. He clasped his hands behind his back and turned about on his heel and walked a few steps from her.

"It is a lovely name. Yes, very lovely." He commented while stopping and turning back around to look at her again. "Tell me, how did you come by that bracelet on your wrist?" he asked while taking a step towards her. Sara shook her head in answer as she didn't know. "Ah, I see. I can see now how your fear began to build from.' Mesagog mused while coming towards her. "Sara, I can help you. I know that you don't belong here. This isn't your home." He stated in a voice that showed he understood what she was going through. "You want to go home, I can see it your eyes. Those eyes. They show so much fear within them." He reached out and stroked the side of her face with a claw. It felt rough and smooth as it ran down her face. "The voices confused you and scared you so much so that you ran. I know what it's like to hear voices, but not in the way you do." Mesagog spoke soothingly.

Sara nodded her head in agreement to what he had said. She wasn't hearing the voices anymore, but yet the fear of having heard them still lingered in her mind. Mesagog nodded as well and gave her that unnatural smile once more. "Sara, may I see your bracelet?" he asked while lifting her left wrist up in indication for her to remove it.

"I don't know how to get it off." She replied with a voice cracking as her eyes started to sting with tears again at this reminder. "There's no clasp to it."

Mesagog nodded to this as he studied the bracelet on her wrist and then laid her hand within her lap. "I see." He mused while seeming to be deep in thought now. After a moment, Mesagog looked at her with a glint within his beady black eyes. "Sara, what if I told you I can find you a way home. Send you back from where you came and rid you of this bracelet as well? Would you be willing to help me with a few things as I look for your way home?" he asked in more of a proposal of sorts and then waited to see what her reply was.

Even though Sara had no idea what this creature named Mesagog was or if she could really trust him, the fact that she could go home because of him caused her eyes to light up suddenly and brought about a cruel smile from Elsa over off to the side where she watched everything between Mesagog and Sara. Mesagog saw her reaction and hid his own similar smile to Elsa's for the time being. To seem as though he were in fact a fare person of sorts, Mesagog decided upon this as he had his own hidden agenda. "I can see you find this intriguing. However, I think it would only be fare for you to have some time to think this over just so you can rid yourself of any doubts." Mesagog stated while standing Sara to her feet. "Elsa will take you back to Reefside, where it will be the safest place for you while you think." He said while guiding Sara over to the blue lipped woman who now bowed to them both.

Sara looked at Mesagog with a rather perplexed look on her face, but he shook his armored head at her unspoken question in response. Elsa offered out a hand to her and actually smiled normally rather than with cruel intent. "Come, I will take you back to Reefside." Placing her hand within the woman's Sara was then quickly ushered away and back down the hall with man in black armor following after. In the same manner as she had arrived, Sara now found herself in a back alley and looking about in wild confusion. "I leave you here at the Cyber Café in Reefside. Master Mesagog leaves you with a few gifts." She stated while in both her hands suddenly appeared to objects that materialized from thin air. One was a bar styled cell phone in a sleek olive green and grey color. The other was a black leather wallet, which after Elsa handed the cell phone over to Sara, opened to reveal that Sara now had a Reefside issued photo ID with her picture and twelve one hundred dollars bills in money pocket. "Use these gifts as you see fit. The cell phone contains already two numbers. One that is your personal number and the other is a number to reach me by if you ever need any help."

Taking these, Sara looked at Elsa with a thankful stare. "Thank you." She stated while placing both within her sweatshirt pocket. Elsa nodded to her and then disappeared along with the man in black armor within the same shimmer of air before her very eyes. After they left, Sara was suddenly struck with a thought before she left the alley. What was causing her to trust these people so quickly who had literally abducted her, while she had fled from someone or ones who had taken care of her since blacking out?


	5. The Red Affect

Chapter Four

The Red Affect

Seeing as how this was a new day, Friday in fact, Sara figured the best thing to do with a piece of her gifts from Mesagog was to get herself changed into some new clothes. Having left the alley Elsa had dropped her into after leaving wherever it was that she had been "escorted" to, the first store that Sara had spotted sporting clothes displays was one of the best she could have hoped for. The display sign on the building read – **Surf and Skate** – and Sara made a beeline straight for it, but not without looking both ways as she had to cross a street to do so. Upon entering the store Sara was greeted with the sweet sounds of SUM 41 playing throughout the store and felt so much more relaxed than she ever had since all this crazy insanity had begun. There were so many things to look at, and Sara at that moment had all the time in the world to search through racks of t-shirts, various pants, sweatshirts, and other clothing items that littered the floor of the small store. For over an hour and a half Sara had looked through everything in that store and tried on various new outfits. After finding a few complete outfits she liked, Sara brought them to the cashier and purchased a little over eighty dollars worth of clothes.

Once done with her little shopping spree and having used a changing room to switch out from her current outfit that was dirty to say the least after having fallen in the woods, and changed into a pair of black Dickies that rested in a loose comfortable manner on her, along with a lime green long sleeved shirt with a darker green Volcom symbol at the center. Her shoes were replaced as well seeing as how her white VANS had been screwed up with all the walking and running she had done through all kinds of dirt. These she through a way after she slipped on some new black kicks by DC. Now fully changed and feeling better for the most part, Sara left the store with two other bags in hand; one containing her other new clothes and the other holding her old ones. After leaving the store Sara felt her stomach suddenly grumble and placed a hand over it. "That's right, I haven't eaten anything since dinner at the hospital." She muttered to herself while looking around real quick for the closest place offering food. And as luck would have it, the first place she saw was that juice bar restaurant she had gone into the other day. "Irony thy name is…" Sara read the name of the place finally to complete her statement. "Haley's Cyber Café. Interesting."

Crossing the street over to the next block across from the Surf and Skate, Sara made for the front doors of the Cyber Café and entered once more as she was looking for lunch this time and not directions. Oddly enough the woman named Haley she had been talking with the other day was behind the counter again. _She's gotta be the owner. Smack, no duh! Especially if her name is Haley and this place is called Haley's Cyber Café! Geez, you idiot. _Taking a seat at the bar she smiled at Haley who looked a bit surprised to see her but returned the smile nonetheless.

"Hey…Sara, right?" Haley asked making sure she remembered the girl's name correctly. Her answer was a nod of the teen's head as she confirmed this to be true. "Good. I was hoping I remembered that right. So, can I get you anything? Directions to somewhere else maybe?" she asked while laughing in good humor at how the last time she had come in it was for directions only.

Sara shook her head while laughing as well. "Nope, not this time. But thanks for yesterday." She replied.

Haley gave her wink while still grinning. "Not a problem. Always happy to help when someone needs it."

"Good to hear. Um, what's your lunch special here?" Sara asked while looking up at the menu hanging on the wall behind Haley, who had turned to the side so she could point out what Sara was asking for.

"Well, today's special is a tuna salad sub and your choice of a large smoothie." Haley recited off the board while looking back to Sara to see if this sounded okay to her. When Sara nodded to this Haley got to work on the sub sandwich. "What smoothie would you like with that?" she asked while looking up from the bread she was cutting into at that moment. Reading the long list of various flavors that the place offered, Sara settled for a strawberry blitz that included blueberries, raspberries, and orange pieces mixed in. Haley nodded as she placed the sub bread in a small toaster oven on the back counter and then set to work on the asked smoothie. In a few minutes Sara had the drink before her in a tinted green glass that was actually pretty big for a large with a straw sticking up out of the drink itself. "Were you able to find the police station okay yesterday?" Haley asked as she spread the tuna salad across both pieces of toasted bread and adding in lettuce, tomato, pickle, and onion.

_Yeah right. _"Uh, yeah, I did. Thanks." Sara replied quickly as she lied with a small grin towards the redhead who was now setting before her a white plate holding a rather delicious looking sandwich. Paying Haley the five eighty-five for the meal, Sara took a big bite from her sandwich as Haley returned to filling new orders that a few customers had asked for. "Oh my god this is good." Sara commented after swallowing most of her first bite.

Haley grinned over at Sara. "You're welcome." She stated as she mixed up a berry smoothie for someone.

Busy with her meal, Sara hadn't even noticed as the same guy from yesterday came in and was at the counter again a seat over from her calling for Haley. She still didn't take any notice as Haley greeted him with 'Oh hey Dr. Oliver.' While leaving the last of the smoothie orders on the counter for a waitress to come over and pick them up. In fact if it hadn't been for the fact that Dr. Oliver took notice of her and said her name, Sara would have been completely oblivious to his presence since she was focused on getting food in her stomach. Once her name had been called Sara looked over to her right and was startled to have Dr. Oliver there at the bar with her. Swallowing what was in her mouth, Sara grabbed a napkin and quickly made sure there wasn't anything left on her face before speaking. "Oh, hi." She greeted while giving the paleontologist a smile.

"Hi, I didn't expect to see you here so soon again." Dr. Oliver stated while glancing over at Haley from the corner of his eye. The fact that Sara was at the Cyber Café had in fact given the doctor a sense of relief that only he knew the worry too and also shocked him at the same time. _Does she have it on her? _"Did everything go okay yesterday?" he asked slowly as he was referring to the fact that the teen had been wanting to get to the Reefside police station, but had a hidden meaning as well to what he was asking.

Sara paused a moment before answering the same way she had with Haley. "Yeah. Yeah it did." She replied while turning her attention on to her smoothie and took a long drink through the straw as she hoped that Dr. Oliver wouldn't ask any other questions. However, this hope was dashed as her left sleeve was pulled down slightly by her own movements and revealed a small glimpse of the bracelet stuck to her wrist.

Seeing this, Dr. Oliver's own eyes went a bit wide before he covered up the surprised look on his face so Sara couldn't see it. "That's a nice bracelet." He commented while he was still keeping his attention focused on her. Haley was seeing this as well and for the moment didn't understand what was going on until Dr. Oliver shot her a quick look that stated he would explain later.

Looking up from her drink to look at Dr. Oliver and then to her left wrist, Sara groaned mentally as she noticed that the bracelet was showing just out from under her sleeve. Forcing a smile on to her face she looked back at Dr. Oliver. "Thanks." She replied while pulling the sleeve back down and then took up her sandwich to take another bite from what was left of it. "So, what's the word on that stone I handed over to you yesterday?" Sara now imposed upon the doctor before taking a bite.

"Oh, well that, my research into it are still on going for the moment." Dr. Oliver stated as he noticed the fact that Sara had changed the subject to avoid any further talk of the bracelet on her arm. Seeing this caused Dr. Oliver to seriously think about his own musing upon the stone she had given him yesterday and now the bracelet on her arm. "Haley could I talk to you for a moment?" he asked while looking over at the redhead who had just been watching the whole time. Snapping to attention she nodded and motioned for him to follow her off to the far side of the counter away from where Sara was sitting.

_Something doesn't seem right with this._ Sara swallowed the last of her sandwich quickly before sucking down on her smoothie that was still half full. _I better get out of here before they come back with more questions. _Fighting back a killer brain freeze brought on by her fast drinking, Sara left Haley a two dollar tip before grabbing her bags and leaving the Cyber Café before she was noticed by the two adults talking to each other. Outside, Sara looked back over her shoulder as she walked away to make sure neither was coming out after her and then hurriedly walked off to another part of this small shopping district. After coming a good distance from the café and coming to where she was out of sight from it, Sara slowed down and exhaled heavily in relief of having dodged a bullet. _That wasn't even funny. _She growled to herself after remembering the fact that she had been shot in the hospital parking lot and then somehow ended up in a city she had never heard of, watched a group of five people fight some sort of Creature of the Black Lagoon thing and kill it, had a bracelet just appear on her wrist with no way of coming off, and just recently encountered a talking dinosaur! Oh yeah, Sara was now hating bullets all together with an extreme disgust and having a possible phobia growth she was unaware of.

Since it seemed as though maybe just having some time to think about things was the best right now, Sara started to explore the small shopping district but made sure she kept her distance from the Cyber Café's location. For seemed like an hour or two of just window shopping and looking through various stores Sara had forgotten all about the situation she was in and just how she came about to being in Reefside.

Indulged with a racing magazine inside a small book store Sara had been reading an article about the up coming NASCAR season when for a moment she thought she felt the ground suddenly tremble under her feet. Looking up from her magazine for a brief moment Sara raised a brow to herself before shaking her head and returning to her reading. Another tremble this time shook the store walls slightly to where things rattled and caused everyone inside to stop what they were doing and look up. Sara closed her magazine and placed it back on the rack as another tremor rattled the store a bit harder. _An earthquake! _She wondered while coming out of the store along with a handful of other customers who were close to the front door. Apparently the people outside had felt the tremors as well and were looking around. Of course many were thinking a possible earthquake, but then a huge explosion rose up from behind the backside of the block across the street that continued on the shopping district area further. A ball of flame popped and then wafted away as a thick cloud of grey smoke.

Seeing this people started to panic only to be thrown into mass hysteria as another explosion just like the first followed. Everyone seemed to be screaming and running in various directions that lead away from the block over. However, instead of being just as afraid as everyone else, Sara felt herself drawn to find out what was going on over on that block. Without even realizing it Sara started to make her way over, crossing the street and following the sidewalk while pushing through swarming crowds of pedestrians headed in the opposite direction. As the difficulty of trying to get to where the two explosion had occurred started to lessen rather quickly, Sara soon found herself coming into a large food court in which every table and chair had been over turned and thrown about in a giant mess. Stopping dead in her tracks, Sara watched with wide eyes as again she was seeing that same group of five people fighting it out with a monster that was nothing like that last one. This time it was covered head to toe with long shaggy orange fur and stood in a hunched over posture with clawed hands that were striking out to catch anyone of the five who got too close. Its face was elongated and held a near werewolf-like appearance over all. _Holy crap! What is with this town! _Sara thought while frantically looking around for a place to hide so as not to get caught by any one.

Ducking down behind a pile of white plastic tables and chairs, Sara dropped her bags beside her and stared out through a gap to watch the fight. The black, yellow, and blue ones were attacking the orange monster from three sides with those same curved swords. This only proved to be a distraction as the red and white came running up from behind and hit it with sword in hand. They struck the monster across the back as it had been caught off guard. The orange monster hollowed in pain before charging through the others and headed straight for where Sara was hiding. Seeing this through the gap, Sara started to panic and became frozen for a moment until she was finally able to force herself up and run. As she scrambled to her feet to get away the orange monster came crashing through the pile and knocked her aside. Sitting up quickly Sara stared up with large eyes as the orange monster loomed over her and brought its snarling face close to her own to where they were nose to nose. Drool dripped off its bared teeth as it started to sniff her scent in.

"HEY! Get away from her!" the red one cried while running towards then with sword ready to strike.

The orange monster looked over at the rushing attacker and then looked back to Sara who was now staring at the person in red coming towards them. "I know who you are by your scent. Do not forget the offer Mesagog makes to you, Sara-child." The monster stated in a gruff voice thick with a canine snarl after catching her attention and then ran off into a shimmering vapor in the air and disappeared entirely.

Still on the ground, Sara just stared at where she had seen the orange creature disappear in even after the person in red reached her spot and gave a frustrated groan while folding the blade of the short curved sword so that it rested forwards on the hilt and then placed it in a holster strapped at the side. "What was that about?" the person in red directly asked of the teen sitting on the ground before him. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

Sara looked up at the guy in red and blinked a few times just to make sure she was seeing things right. The same red helmet stared down at her with the razor toothed motif decorating it about a black visor strip that ran across the eye area. Taking the whole sight in, she was near gawking at the fact that this person wore an entire one piece suit of red leather (or so it looked, maybe even a soft leather to say the least) with white strip running over the shoulders, arms, and down the legs where red boots ended the pattern. _Who the hell…? Well, it's a guy I can see that, and hear it, but seriously what the hell. _"What?" she asked while pushing herself up off the ground to stand on her feet with no help from this red suited guy.

"I asked you what _that_ was about." The guy stated again while pointing after the already gone orange creature.

Furrowing her brow at this guy's attitude, she was already taking a dislike to him. "I'm fine by the way." She stated while going to dust her hands off only to find a sharp sting travel through them. Looking down at her palms Sara saw that they were scratched and turning red where the abrasions were located. "And I don't know what you're talking about anyways." She now replied while hiding the grimace from the pain and looking up at the guy again.

It looked as though from this guy's body language he was ready to say something back to her that wasn't going to be very polite, but that was when the others came up from behind him and the black one interrupted quickly. "Calm down. I'm sure she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." The black one state with a male voice that seemed a bit familiar to say the least.

_You could say that again. _Sara stared between them all as she took note of each color they were solely dressed in. Red, black, blue, white, and yellow. The yellow one Sara took to be a girl as the legs were covered with a mini skirt of same color and material. That or there was a very confused guy in this group. At any rate, she had become fed up with whatever this whole thing was and stalked over to where her bags were still sitting. Turning on her heel to look back at them all, she held a greatly annoyed look on her face. "I have no idea what or who you people are and what was with that thing, but you know what, I don't want to know." She stated while grabbing her bags up. "And for your information red," she snapped while directing an angry stare upon the stated guy. "I have no idea what that thing even said to me or what it wanted. So get over yourself."

As she turned to leave in a huff, her ears picked something up that sounded as though it were just spoken out right when in fact it had been muttered quietly under the red guy's breath – "Stupid girl." Dropping her bags, Sara turned on her heel and marched right over to him so that she was near up in his helmet covered face when she came to a stop. Without even thinking about what she was about to do and how incredibly ridiculous it would look, Sara smacked the guy across his face covered helmet. And lucky for him he had that on or he would have some serious sting after affect to experience as Sara's hand was now taking. However, right after Sara's hand had come into contact with the helmet the bracelet started to glow an eerie green while remaining silver still. As a result Sara felt herself start to go weak as if all her strength was seeping away.

"Not again." She muttered as her eyes fluttered, _Why does this seem to be a consistent pattern now, _ and then collapsed as everything went black. Fortunately for her, the guy in red was still in shock from the fact that when she smacked him he had felt it through the helmet unbelievably, actually caught her as she fell. It was more on instinct than anything else, but still, he caught her.


	6. Black Out

Chapter Five

Black Out

"_Welcome to USC Ms. Anderson. Here is your number six jersey."_

_Sara once again stared with such a longing at the gold and red jersey before her eyes as she traced her last name, the number six, and every other detail on there. There is was. Her life's dream of becoming an accomplished athlete was just about to start here at the University of Southern California home of the Trojans and eventually lead up into a career on some women's pro team and maybe even going to the Olympics one day. And yet…as she reached out once again to try and grasp upon this dream her fingers went right through the jersey as it became a ghost and disappeared only to once more have her hand held by that same black gloved one she knew belonged to a green dragon motif faced helmet. Staring into the lidless outlined eyes, her own brown eyes started to gleam with brewing tears as she just silently shook her head._

"_Why are you doing this to me? What did I ever do to deserve this?" Sara asked in a plea in which her voice was laced with a deep hurt as a tear suddenly slid down from her eye and followed the curve of her cheek._

_In mirror image to her, the helmeted figure now produced a tear from the exact same eye. "You exist." A harsh and raspy voice answered from seemingly nowhere and yet everywhere at the same time to Sara's two questions. A simple answer and yet it held a deep wound that cut to her very core._

_Allowing the pain of everything to fall upon her at once, she fell to her knees and started to quietly sob while still holding on to the hand of the figure. The hold on her hand became more secure as if this thing was trying to assure her of something. No, it was trying to assure her that everything was going to be all right. That she shouldn't allow that evil answer of – "You exist" to harm her any more than it even should. As another hand was now laid upon her shoulder, she looked up._

Slowly her eyes started to open again only to have her vision invaded by a burning white light. _Oh, I'm dead. How lovely. _Sara thought sarcastically to herself while allowing her eyes to slowly adjust to the light before opening them all the way. _What now? Are Michael and Gabriel going to appear and escort me in through the pearly gates of Heaven? Or am I about to be sent on a one way train to Hell just by the mere pull of the perennial lever of St. Peter? _Blinking a few times, Sara finally managed to refocus her vision away from the light and off to the side of it. Well, she wasn't in Heaven, or Hell for that matter. That is, unless they redecorated with a starch white ceiling of shinny plastic tiles. Turning her head to the left first her cheek came to rest upon a rather soft pillow and affirmed to Sara that she was once again on her back and on a bed of sorts. There was a distinct sound of soft beeps like that of a monitor you see in a hospital. And Sara knew all about that as she worked in one and had been hooked up one time to those machines after crashing her dirt bike on an off-roading trail and breaking a wrist and three ribs.

On the left of her, Sara was seeing a wall lined with what appeared to be computer towers that reached from floor to ceiling. At the center of this line was placed what at best she could describe as a flat screen plasma TV that showed various pictures that went from small to large and then listed off data to the sides, top, and bottom of the screen against a neon green hatch grid. The images she was seeing was that exactly of the stone she had found in the forest a few days ago and then the bracelet she now had around her wrist. _The hell…? _Turning her head away from the wall and now turned it to the right, she stared at a light brunette haired girl around her own age at best guess. The girl was staring back at her with a friendly smile on her face and in her black eye liner rimmed eyes. On her lap Sara spotted an open magazine she had apparently been reading. The girl's attire totally spoke follower of punk, primarily Avril.

"Hi." The girl greeted in a rather cheerful manner while closing her magazine and getting up from the chair she had been sitting on. "How are you feeling?" she asked while coming over to Sara's side and looking over her in a quick once over.

Sara's brow furrowed a moment as she processed the girl's question. "I think I'm fine." She answered and then got her arms up near her immediate side and pushed herself up into a sitting position and near regretted it as a sudden rush smacked the center of her forehead that caused her to feel slightly dizzy. The girl had seen this and placed a hand gently on Sara's shoulder as if ready to help sit up if need be. However, now sitting up, Sara looked over at the girl again who was looking her over to make sure she was in fact okay for the most part. "Who are you?" she asked as she suddenly realized that this was someone she had never seen nor met at all.

The girl looked at her and again smiled. "Oh, sorry about that. My name's Kira Ford." She introduced herself and then gave her a wondering look. "It's Sara, right?" she asked as it appeared she knew the name but just wanted to make sure she was putting it to the right face. Her response to this was a slow nod from Sara's head. "Good. I'm bad with names." Kira explained while laughing nervously as she spoke. "So, do you remember anything before you blacked out?" she asked.

"I remember slapping someone." Sara replied while looking down at her hands, which were still sore from the scrapes they had taken on and of course glared quickly at the bracelet still on her left wrist. Without much notice the girl name Kira started to laugh, which now had Sara looking away from her hands to her directly. "What's so funny?" she asked while raising a brow.

Kira shook her head lightly causing her long light brown tresses to move about her shoulders. "Nothing." She replied while composing herself and forcing the end to her laughter. "Maybe I should explain where you're out before I say anything else." Kira suggested while turning part way around and dragging the chair she had been sitting in over so she could sit next to Sara's bed. "After you fainted in the courtyard, you were brought here to this med lab to make sure that you were all right. You've been asleep for a little over a day now." She explained while watching for a reaction from Sara.

The facial expression on Sara's face remained a rather passive one as she listened to Kira tell her what had happened after passing out once again. After she finished, Sara sighed quietly to herself and looked down into her lap for a moment. "I have no idea what is going on anymore." She mumbled quietly before looking up at Kira again with a small smile on her face. "So, in all honesty I have to say, that I am so glad that you were the first person I met after waking up again from some random black out." Sara laughed slightly as she spoke.

"Random black out?" Kira inquired as she scooted closer to the bed. "Has this happened before?" she pressed while her brows furrowed at the thought that this had happened more than once to her. "I mean aside from the other time."

The fact that Kira mentioned the only other time that she had blacked out caused Sara to cock her head to the side slightly. "How did you know about another time?" she asked with a suspicious tone in her voice as she now eyed Kira in a rather unnerving way.

Lost for any kind of answer on her part that she could use and not have Sara freaking out horribly, Kira just sighed in defeat while giving the girl a deeply apologetic look. "I don't know how I can go about explaining this to you without having you trying to run out again." _Bad one Kira! _"I mean, um, well…" Kira trailed off as she realized just how deep of a hole she had dug herself into as Sara's facial expression showed a sense of panic while also she started to slowly edge away from Kira. "No wait, Sara, don't! There's someone else I think who can explain everything to you when he gets here." She pleaded while reaching out a hand towards her and laying it down gently on Sara's own hand.

"Fine. Whatever." Sara sighed while quitting her instinctual attempt to get up and flee. "After all, you guys have so many things stuck to me, it's not like I can just up and go." She gave a pathetic attempt of a smile to Kira. _What other choice is there? Really, here I'm being held by human people and not some talking dinosaur and his insane lady friend, and I'm more ready to bolt than I was with…uh…what's his name? Mesagog or something? Whatever, right now I just want an explanation for whatever the hell is going on. _

"Well, it's good to see you awake finally Ms. Anderson." A rather familiar voice stated from behind the two girls.

Looking back over her shoulder Sara's eyes became rather wide with the shock and surprise of seeing none other than Dr. Oliver coming in through the door to the med lab and left it half open behind him as he entered. _How did I know that was coming? _Sara watched as he came to stand just beside Kira on her right (Kira's right) and stop there only to offer a sympathetic smile to her. "I take it you're the 'he' Kira was talking about who's going to explain things to me?" she asked while raising an unamused eyebrow at the grown adult.

Dr. Oliver nodded his head while maintaining his small smile for the most part. "Indeed I am. Well, at least I can explain to you our part that is." He answered and then sighed right after. "Sara, that day we first met at Haley's Cyber Café, you gave me a green stone that you said you had found out in the woods. That stone happens to be a very important object, and not just in paleontology matters at all." He paused a moment before continuing. "The stone you found is actually called a Dino Gem. It's very old and…very powerful from what I could tell after scanning it." Dr. Oliver gestured over to the flat plasma screen on the wall off to the left of the room on Sara's side.

Sara followed his gesture and again gazed upon the screen that was still repeating over the same images she had seen before when she came too. "What do you mean by powerful? Is it like some sort of high content mineral?" she asked while looking back to Dr. Oliver and glancing a moment over at Kira at the same time.

Kira grinned at this as she managed to suppress a giggle to what Sara had asked, while Dr. Oliver shook his head. "No. I mean powerful, as in literally powerful. This Dino Gem is very peculiar and it has now grown rather mysterious when it suddenly vanished during the same day I met you in the cyber café. I believe it reappeared not long after in the form of a simple piece of jewel when the Water Dog appeared." He stated as he directed his gaze towards Sara's unseen left wrist where he knew that bracelet rested.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait!" Sara started while taking on a rather irritated tone of voice. "Are trying to tell me that you how this got on my wrist and that it's actually that rock I found!" she asked while holding up her left wrist for both him and Kira to see. "And what the hell is a Water Dog?"

Kira looked up at Dr. Oliver with a look on her face that caused Sara to look between the both of them as a very uncomfortable feeling started to rise throughout her entire body. Dr. Oliver sighed and gave Sara a defeated smile. "I suppose there's no tip toeing around this in any way to make it easier on you. Sara, after you gave me the Dino Gem I noticed that the luster and gleam it had was gone. Almost as if it reacted being separated from you and this had me thinking it was more than just a simple rock. I left the cyber café and came home to scan it. That's when I learned it to be a Dino Gem. An unknown and unheard of green Dino Gem." He paused a moment and took note of the lost look on Sara's face before continuing on.

"The scales took high readings of power that seemed to only be a scratch of the surface. When the Water Dog appeared, the stone just completely vanished from under the scanner and the readings were incomplete." The look on Sara's face was only growing in the further exploration of lost. Dr. Oliver sighed. "A Water Dog is what you saw that day in the intersection fighting. The noise everyone was hearing during the fight was more than likely coming from the stone bracelet in reaction to the monster and us."

The last few words had Sara raising a brow as realization was starting to set in now with a very nervous jump in her stomach that was growing. "What do you mean – "us"?" she asked knowing that he was going to answer with something she was now anticipating, though she prayed that wasn't the case.

"Us, as in myself, Kira, and three others. We were the people in the suits and helmets fighting the Water Dog." Dr. Oliver answered while pulling up the sleeve on his own left wrist to reveal a single solid band of silver holding a black oval stone sitting at the top center. Kira did the same to show a similar bracelet only with a yellow stone on hers. "We're the new team of Power Rangers." Dr. Oliver stated while keeping his gaze on Sara, watching her for any reaction that should show him signs of concern for the girl's well being seeing as she had passed out on them twice already.

Sara dropped the lost look on her face and took on a blank one. "Power Rangers." She repeated and then received a nod from both in return. "Okay, where are the hidden cameras at?" she asked while nervously smiling and looking around the room she was in. "Is Aston hiding somewhere in a side room?"

Kira held a sympathetic look on her face for the reaction Sara was having to this. Clearly she wasn't taking this well. "Sara, there aren't cameras and Ashton Kutcher isn't hiding out somewhere punking you. We really are Power Rangers." Kira stated while staring the girl in the eyes.

Shaking her head and swallowing hard, Sara looked between them. "No that's not possible." She stated desperately as her mind said otherwise. How else was she going to explain all of this if not accepting reality? "You can't be Power Rangers, they're not real! It's just a TV show that I watched when I was a kid, and now my cousins watch it."

"I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, but I am telling you the truth Sara." Dr. Oliver stated while touching the black gem on his bracelet. Immediately the once piece of jewelry shifted itself in a mirage like way to take on the shape of a long black dinosaur head accented with gold. "I think the best way to get this across is to show you." He explained while pulling out from his jacket pocket what appeared to be some sort of key with a more razor edge than teeth to it. Without another word, Dr. Oliver stuck the key into the side of the dino headed bracelet and turned it.

Sara watched in slack jawed awe as some sort of black light sped out from the bracelet and consumed the entire adult frame of Dr. Oliver head to toe and then left him in a black outfit with gold stripping along the top of his shoulders that followed down his arms. The striping continued down the sides of his torso and ended finally where boots started. The last thing to be covered was his head, which starting from the back of his neck came what could only be described as unraveling of a helmet bearing a slight resemblance to the same dinosaur face of the bracelet in a decretive motif. Once this had finished the key that he had used to start this all was sucked inside the bracelet only having the butt end barely peeking out in a button. Not a single word formed itself within her brain, throat, and or mouth as Sara just stared with wide eyes at what had just happened right next to her.

As her eyes remained transfixed upon the now suited up Dr. Oliver, Sara was unaware of the fact that the bracelet on her left wrist was now glowing with an eerie green light about the outline of the intricate lattice web work. The effects of an oncoming light headness started to cause Sara's body to sway ever so slightly, but it was enough to raise concern on Dr. Oliver's part as he reached out and set his hand upon her shoulder in attempt to steady her. "You okay there kiddo?" he asked and received a rather abrupt shock as Sara's eyes fluttered a moment and then closed completely as her body went limp and started to fall backwards on to the med table. "Kira, help me."

Kira immediately reached out with both hands as she stepped closer to the bed and helped Dr. Oliver ease the now unconscious girl down carefully. "What happened to her?" she asked as Dr. Oliver's new attire disappeared in the same manner as it had come.

"I'm not sure." He replied while pocketing the ejected key from his bracelet as it in turn reshaped itself to its more jewelry like state. As Dr. Oliver went around the table to fetch a few monitor applicators, he noticed something. The bracelet Sara was wearing had an intense green glow to it that seemed to moving a wave-like manner. _What the hell is going on? _Shaking it for the moment Dr. Oliver found what he was looking for over near the plasma screen and soon had Sara hooked up right to it and a complex computer system.

The plasma screen was reading out the vitals of Sara's body as well as scanning for anything that may have caused the sudden blackout again. As Dr. Oliver and Kira waited in silence the computer system alarm started to blink and sounded as the screen brought up the same image of the bracelet and stone that had been replaying over and over again earlier. Kira looked over at Dr. Oliver with a confused look on her face. "What does that mean the bracelet had something to do with this?"

"Maybe." Was the only reply that he gave for the moment as he watched the read outs on the screen. _Something is definitely very wrong here. The way she reacted to all of this seems to be a pattern of sorts. But just what kind and why is the question now. I only hope she's alright._

It was near going on three hours since Sara had once again blacked out, and finally there was a sign that she was waking up. She stirred a bit before opening her eyes all the way and blinking a few times to chase out the light staring down from overhead at her. "Oh god, my head." She groaned while placing her left hand to her forehead and shutting her eyes a moment.

Kira sighed in relief from her spot that she had once again taken up in her chair off to the side. Standing up, she came over to Sara's side and looked down at her with worry lines wrinkled down her forehead. "Hey, how are you feeling?" she asked while stepping back a bit as Sara sat up.

"Like I have one of the world's greatest migraines ever." Sara replied while looking over at Kira with a tired half hearted smile. "This is really getting old." She smirked in defeated fun at the fact that she was starting to become a one trick pony so to say.

This had Kira grinning while holding back a small laugh all at the same time. Kira looked across the room to where Dr. Oliver had been standing the whole time. "I think she's fine." She stated in good humor as the adult male came to stand on Sara's opposite side from Kira.

"I'm glad you're okay Sara. I really am. I didn't mean to freak you out so bad." Dr. Oliver apologized with a sympathetic smile on his face. "You've blacked out three times now. I don't know yet what's causing these black outs, but I think it's obvious from the way you reacted to what I told and showed you, that there's more to this than just the unexplained bracelet on your wrist." He stated while hinting to an obvious mention on Sara's part.

Sara nodded to this meekly while biting the inside of her lip and looking down into her lap before facing Kira and Dr. Oliver again. "I don't know what is going on. And, I don't think I'm even near home anymore." She stated with a look on her face that showed just how close she was coming to breaking down.

Kira placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Why don't you tell us everything you do know from the beginning? Maybe we can help you out some way." She offered in suggestion while glancing over at Dr. Oliver who nodded in agreement to this.

Taking in a deep breath to calm herself, Sara then exhaled and started from what she could recall and piece together. "Well, I know I finished grave shift at the hospital gift shop at around nine forty-five. I left and headed for my car going out the ER hall since the front doors had been locked. Um, when I got to my car I heard loud voices coming from the ER walk-in station and then I heard what I think was a gun going off. The next thing I know there's a blinding pain spreading through my body and hurting the most at my left shoulder. I think that's when I first started the whole black out thing." She explained decently enough so as not to go off track with trivial matters. "Then the next thing I know, I'm waking up in a forest in a place I've never heard of."

Taking this all in, Dr. Oliver held a rather intent look upon his face for a few minutes after Sara had finished her story. He nodded his head finally as he seemed to understanding now what may be going on. "Sounds like you've had a rough time." He commented while offering a ghost smile. "Sara, whatever has happened here to you, I promise, I'll do what I can to help you out."


End file.
